'Let it be an arms race' Donald Trump ramps up the rhetoric as he vows USA will outlast and outmatch its rivals

Trump and Putin want to be able to destroy the world more times than they already can (Image: Reuters)

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US President-elect Donald Trump has challenged the world to an arms race.

Yesterday he tweeted that he wanted to massively expand America's nuclear capability, saying that other countries had to "come to their senses".

The businessman made his Dr Stranglove pronouncement on MSNBC, when clarifying yesterday's tweet which stated that the US would embark on a huge expansion of its nuclear programme.

Speaking to host Mika Brzezinski on the phone, Trump was asked to expand on his tweet. He responded: "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all."

Trump and Putin are flexing their muscles (Image: REUTERS / Getty)

Prior to yesterday's tweet Russian President Vladimir Putin had flexed his own military muscles.

He said: "We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems," he said in a speech in Moscow.

And in his year-end news conference in Moscow today, Putin said Trump's comment on Wednesday was not out of line and that he did not consider the United States to be a potential aggressor.

Putin said: "I was a bit surprised by the statements from some representatives of the current US administration who for some reason started to prove that the US military was the most powerful in the world. Nobody is arguing with that."

He also said Trump's statement about overhauling US nuclear forces was "nothing special."

He added: "Trump spoke during his election campaign about the need to beef up the US nuclear arsenal and the armed forces."

Meanwhile, China has called on both the US and Russia to rein in their nuclear capability, saying that countries with the largest nuclear arsenals should take the lead in disarmament.

The US and Russia hold the vast majority of the world's nuclear weapons. China is also a nuclear power and in 1996, Beijing signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

According to US authorities, China has an estimated 260 nuclear warheads. Russia and the US have more than 7,000 each - enough to blow the planet to smithereens many times over.

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Hua said that China wants nuclear weapons to be phased out.

She said: "The countries that have the largest nuclear arsenals should bear special responsibility for nuclear disarmament, take a lead in drastically and tangibly cutting the number of nuclear weapons so as to create conditions for the eventual full and thorough nuclear disarmament."

If Trump and Putin both want to expand nuclear weapons, that would effectively end arms control efforts underway since the Nixon administration, said Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, a foundation that works to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons.